UNITED STATES CONGRESSMAN 3rd DISTRICT, NEBRASKA TOM OSBORNE

Washington Round-up | Week of July 19, 2004

Becoming Leaders Through Vocational Education

Every summer, hundreds of students active in the FFA organization make the journey to Washington, D.C. to meet with elected officials, attend conferences, and gain valuable information to further their skills as leaders in the field of agriculture. In 1950, Congress granted the FFA a federal charter, making it an integral, intracurricular part of public agricultural instruction. Today, the national FFA organization has grown to over 460,000 student members succeeding through agricultural education.

Currently, Congress is working to ensure vocational and technical education programs such as FFA continue to provide young people with the leadership skills and training needed to succeed in an increasingly technical workforce. As a strong advocate for vocational and technical education, I will continue to play an active role in the reauthorization process of the Perkins Act of 1998, which provides federal funds for secondary and postsecondary vocational education programs.

Recently, the U.S. House Education Committee’s Subcommittee on Education Reform approved H.R. 4496, the Vocational and Technical Education for the Future Act. H.R. 4496 builds on reforms made to the Perkins Act of 1998 by helping states better utilize federal funds; increase accountability and emphasize student achievement; and strengthen opportunities for coordination between secondary and postsecondary vocational and technical education, including the creation of model sequences of courses. A summary of the bill can be viewed online at http://edworkforce.house.gov/issues/108th/education/voced/billsummary.htm.

In the subcommittee proceedings, I offered an amendment approved by voice vote that would allow vocational and technical education programs to provide for activities to support entrepreneurship education and training. The provision included in the legislation allows states and local school districts the option to utilize available federal funds for entrepreneurship education.

Research indicates that youth are overwhelming interested in entrepreneurship. In their book, The “E” Generation: Prepared for the Entrepreneurial Economy, Marilyn L. Kourilsky and William B. Walstad state, “there is an unprecedented interest in entrepreneurship and the entrepreneurial process among the youth and adults of our country. Of every 10 high school and college-age students, between six and seven of them aspire to start a business of their own.”

Kourilksy and Walstad’s research indicates that schools and communities would serve themselves well to assess their current youth entrepreneurship education programs and develop programs accordingly. The benefits of student entrepreneurship activities are far-reaching by stimulating the local economy and helping to foster youth retention as they build and grow businesses within a community. As their businesses grow, youth are more likely to stay and invest in a community’s future.

Entrepreneurship training can be successfully integrated into traditional coursework and textbook instruction by incorporating hands-on business activities. For example, writing marketing materials, proposals, and business plans can improve English skills; practicing sales and accounting can improve math skills; and developing manufacturing processes for products can be incorporated in a science class.

Once successfully integrated into the classroom, entrepreneurship training has a positive effect on students’ overall academic performance. A study conducted by Howard S. Rasheed, PhD., assistant professor of business management at the University of South Florida, indicates students with entrepreneurship training score higher in a number of subjects including reading, math, social studies, and language compared to those students who did not have that training.

The evidence speaks for itself. While the amendment I offered gives states and local school districts the option of utilizing federal funds for entrepreneurship education, I hope more schools will quickly realize the many opportunities such education provides for the future of our youth.

As adolescents, most youth, whether active in a lawn mowing business or as babysitters, have benefited from innate entrepreneurial skills. As adults and educators, it is our duty to help build on these talents by providing them with the necessary knowledge. By investing in entrepreneurship education, we invest in the future of our youth and the future of our country’s economy. While it is important to know how to weld, it may be even more beneficial to know how to establish and run the welding shop.